Mission 22: Scavenger Hunt
Though they were supposed to be on somewhat friendly terms, and even if Rufus Shinra funded his organization, the flames of rivalry burned strong when ever the pretty president saw Reeve Tuesti. The ex-executive had left Shinra to support Avalanche. Though he physically remained with Shinra during most of the Meteor ordeal, he sent his more useful representative, Cait Sith, to lend a hand in stopping Sephiroth along with Cloud's group. That traitor!
Sure there was a dept to be paid, and Rufus would finance it, but letting go of his pride was another story. The Shinra Company would not lose to the World Restoration Organization in the noble game of a scavenger hunt. Rufus made certain of that when he and Reeve, the team captains who were not to participate in the hunt itself and constantly watched each other to ascertain the other's silence, hid the plushies that were the prices of the scavenger hunt.
The locations of said plushies would be deciphered through clues. Those clues were very easy to figure out, because that was not the real test at all. The places where the plushies were hidden would prove difficult to reach. Reeve's team was made from mostly volunteers, Rufus assumed, and the strongest players, the only concerns, were Vincent Valentine and Yuffie Kisaragi. Traveling by air was a requirement so that might considerably slow the ninja, which left Vincent as the only fully capable player on Reeve's team, as far as Rufus knew.
However, Rufus had fully trained Turks at his disposal, whom he expected to come out victorious at the end of the game, which was nothing more than a publicity stunt. Shinra would be proven to be friendly enough to play with the WRO and strong enough to win. But Rufus did not expect Reeve to hire Cloud Strife to be on his team, neither did he expect Cloud to drag Tifa Lockhart into this.
The signal to start sounded off with a bang and the two teams ran to the helicopters previously prepared for them. Representing Shinra were Tseng, Elena, Reno and Rude and representing the WRO were Vincent, Yuffie, Cloud and Tifa.
The helicopter ride was easy for the Turks, while their opponents were not doing so great. Yuffie's complaints could be heard, while Vincent tried to remain calm and Cloud and Tifa got into an argument about who should pilot the helicopter, though neither actually knew how. Miraculously, the WRO team wasn't killed in the attempt, and managed to make a crash landing to the first location, the forests around Mideel after deciphering the clue "with a fountain of life stream, its doom the house meets."
The WRO Team picked up a Reeve plushie, leaving a Cloud plushie in its place, next to the unclaimed Rufus plushie. The Turks actually landed their helicopter just outside of the forest, far from the town, and went into the forest on foot.
However, the WRO did not stay in the lead for long, since they had to make an emergency call to Cid and have him pick them up while the Turks went off to the next location after having obtained the first Rufus plushie, leaving a Rude plushie in its place. The trip so far had not been easy, as both teams were worn out by the hot and humid conditions of the forest.
The second of the four plushies each team had to obtain, in the image of their respective leaders, was located in the Nibelheim Mountains, a place that Tifa knew well, except for the shortcut that only the Turks knew about and not even Soldiers were informed about it in the past.
Because of this, the teams remained tied, the WRO having made up for the time they spend waiting for Cid by the faster travel of his airship. The plushies of Tifa and Tseng were left there as proof each team had been in the location by the tracking devices inside them, which also prevented cheating, and the second plushies of Rufus and Reeve were recovered.
The Gold Saucer was the location of the third plushies, a place filled with fan girls and fan boys that nearly tore both teams apart. The Turks went on ahead, since the WRO were missing a team member, Yuffie was just too motion sick to do anything after traveling too much too fast.
The Turks took the lead, exhausted from the fan battle and the dessert heat. The Gold Saucer's air conditioner just had to break down on that day. But they were not giving up, if anything the difficulties helped them pretend this was a real Turks mission filled with all kind of dangers. A Reno plushie was left at the Gold Saucer, along with a Vincent plushie, both plushies becoming the cause of a large fan war to obtain them.
Finally they arrived at the location of the last plushies, Gaea Cliff. After nearly freezing to death and having a few slippery close calls, both teams miraculous left the Elena and Yuffie plushies there and obtained the last Rufus and Reeve plushies.
Exhausted and sore, both teams landed outside the city as planned, for the final task of racing from the city entrance all the way to Shinra Headquarters while being tracked by the devices on the plushies, but they were too tired to go on and collapsed on the street.
"I really, really, want to kill Rufus right now," Reno admitted, receiving unanimous agreement from everyone else. "And Reeve, he needs to die too," once again the agreement was unanimous.
"Let's quit this scavenger hunt and go to the Seventh Heaven instead," Tifa offered. "We can have a nice meal and rest, then both Rufus and Reeve would lose if none of the teams make it." Thus it was done, and the secret rivalry between the WRO and the proud Shinra was not resolved that day.
End of Mission 22
Disclaimer, I don't own Final Fantasy VII. Mission 22 was requested by Sasami10, I have two different missions written for this request. The other one will be posted next. The idea of using plushies for the scavenger hunt on Mission 22 came from an old animated Chipmunk movie.